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Bodrum Travel Blog › entry 491 of 654 › view all entries

39 months, Europe, Asia the Middle East and Africa. Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, Pandas, Elephants, Bears, Komodo Dragons, Turtles, Tigers, Bulls. Pyramids, Petra, Ephesus, Kremlin, Great Wall, Angkor, Bagan, Persepolis, Trans Siberian railway and fantastic travbuddys! Stolen bags, crowbar threats, 1 landmine explosion, bank robbery, 2 motorbike crashes, 2 bus crashes, pancreatis, erosion of the liver and kidneys, BUT im still here and telling my tale! Check out the blog and leave a smile/comment

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World › Europe › Turkey › Bodrum

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December 30, 2008

Bodrum Marina, with the Castle situated in the background

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Eric and Dave (USA)

The sleeper bus from Istanbul terminated in Bodrum at 11.00, which was bang on time. From the bus station i called the Hotel Kalender, whose owner Murtaza came to pick me up for free. I had booked a room in a dormitory for only 10YTL ($6.50), but as there was no-one else staying, i was given an en-suite private twin room with air conditioning and TV, which was an incredibly good deal. Having checked in i decided to go for a wander around town to see what was on offer.

My first stop was at the Myndos Gate, which was originally constructed by King Mausolus in the 4^th Century BC.

Yachts anchored in Bodrum Marina

There were seventeen Roman burial mounds and a moat which had gained fame from drowning many of Alexander The Greats invading Macedonian army. After visiting this i went and grabbed a lahmacun from a quaint little bakery and then walked down to the marina for a stroll along the seafront, which ended up taking me to an old Ottoman Shipyard. There wasn't really anything to see here other than a couple of tombs, which may appeal to people with a knowledge of Ottoman sea heroes.

For the rest of the afternoon i did my best to find out some information on what we could do for the next couple of days and i managed to find a really cheap car rental shop, which only wanted 45YTL ($30) for a days rental. Unfortunately the scuba dive centre was closed, but i did manage to find out the castle opening times and prices. Once i was done with all this i went for a quick look around the bazaar before heading home with a kebab.

Yachts anchored in Bodrum Marina

The guys arrived in from Istanbul in the early evening, so we met up at 20.30 and went out for Dinner in a nearby restaurant. The owner was just starting to learn English and we did our best to communicate with him throughout the evening. Leaving the restaurant there was a really cold wind that had sent temperatures plummeting, but nevertheless we decided that we should walk into the centre to try and find out some places to go out drinking the following night, which would be New Years Eve.

To say Bodrum was dead would be an understatement and we saw maybe a dozen people in bars and a few in restaurants and that was it. For a brief moment there was discussion of getting the hell out of there and moving to a bigger City, but we had all paid for our accommodation and travelled a long way to get there, so we decided that we should stay. All the clubs that we asked seemed positive that there would be a big party for New Years and were keen for us to attend, but we thought they were probably pulling our legs. We returned home not too optimistic about what would be in store for us the following night.